Q7 - Naturalist: Different nonhuman primate species

[mshinners]

Question Type:
Most Strongly Supported

Stimulus Breakdown:
Chimps quickly grab a tool and then get bored. Orangutans ignore the tool until no one's looking, and then try to escape.

Answer Anticipation:
The answer will either be a weak, generic statement about primates behaving differently, chimps having short attention spans, or orangutans being sneaky.

Correct answer:
(C)

Answer choice analysis:
(A) Degree/scope. "Most" is too strong since we only get information about two species. Intelligence is out of scope because there's nothing to directly connect either species's actions to intelligence (maybe getting bored quickly is a sign of intelligence).

(B) Out of scope. There's no details here that are attributable to memory. Moving on to something else doesn't evince that the chimps forgot about the screwdriver.

(C) This is weak, and it seems to align with what we know about orangutans. Not a first round pick, but I'd leave it on my first pass and then select it after eliminating the rest.

(D) Unwarranted comparison. Even if we accept that orangutans's attempts to escape show a dislike of cages (maybe they just like being mischievous), we can't compare their dislike to that of chimps. Maybe chimps hate being in cages, but they just didn't see how a screwdriver could help with that situation.

(E) If anything, this would apply to chimps. However, there's not enough information to state that they don't understand tool use; maybe they just didn't have a use for this particular tool.

Takeaway/Pattern:
Remember: Most Strongly Supported answers don't need to be airtight. However, incorrect answers will make huge jumps, and correct answers will be very closely tied to the stimulus.

#officialexplanation

[ZarkaS555]

Hi Matt, question about answer choice E - i picked this one when on a times PT because it seemed like the jump from the orangutan "ignoring" the tool at first to "deceiving" was too large. Answer choice E seemed to say "Some nonhuman primates understand tool use", i.e Orangutans do.

Does not all not translate to "some"? I'm confused about how I should have eliminated answer choice E

[adamB949]

ZarkaS555 I was stuck between C and E as well. I ended up choosing C because in the stimulus the author said the Orangutang PRETENDED to ignore the tool until the zookeeper left. I thought that directly supported C and moved on to the next question

[christine.defenbaugh]

I think adamB949 is spot on with the defense of (C)! The orangutans aren't just ignoring it for awhile and coming back to it later - they are pretending to ignore it! Sneaky moves!

But, ZarkaS555, I did want to address your concern about (E) - you have a small (but powerful) mistake in your translation of "not all". You've translated "not all" to mean "some", when in reality it should translate to "some DON'T." For instance:

"Not all cats have stripes." means "Some cats don't have stripes."

So, what (E) is really saying is that 'some nonhuman primates don't understand tool use.' Since we can't support this idea for either the chimps or the orangutans, (E) is out!

[LawrenceR550]

Interesting discussion. It's clearly meant to be narrowed down to C and E, but I still feel like an argument can be made for E.

C could technically be false. It says "Some nonhuman primates are capable of deception." Well, apparently the zookeeper wasn't fooled. We have no evidence that the orangutans ever succeeded in their attempts to pretend, just that they try to; maybe they got caught every single instance. Then again, I suppose an attempt at deception indicates capability of deception, regardless of the outcome. A person who's never played the piano before may only be able to produce cacophonious sounds, without the ability to play a single song; they're still "playing" the piano. So that's why C is the correct answer.

As for E, in the stimulus we are told that chimpanzees "examine and play with it for a time, and then move on to something else." That's a stark contrast from understanding how to use the tool, as the orangutans did. To me, it sounds strong enough to suggest that chimps don't understand how to use it. Moreover, there are obviously many other types of nonhuman primates, and it's a pretty long leap to say they all understand tool use, including the chimps, who we know "examine and play" with the tool when they come upon it. MSS questions tend to ask us to infer, so E is tempting.

Takeaway: always choose something that must be true over something that requires you to infer something.